Art skills

[finleysmaid]

OK trying to get my thinking cap on and brain is struggling!

 

This term I really want to make sure the staff to teach the skills needed for art (there's been a bit of pinterest fever going on)

so what I would like to do is create a list of all the art skills children need to acquire ...so what would you include in this list?

[Jester]

Offering the experience before teaching the skill. I always liked to do mono printing to start with to get them to explore and experiment with the paint before trying to make sense of how to use it then introducing the paper over the top.

I'm about to go out but I'll come back on later with a fuller reply

[louby loo]

OK trying to get my thinking cap on and brain is struggling!

 

 

My brain is totally out of sync after the holidays - I can't even understand your question. :lol: :lol:

Do you mean being able to use scissors, hold brushes, use glue effectively?

 

To be honest - is there really any 'skills' needed for art? For me art is all about imagination and experiences .

 

I just like to be able to offer lots of experimenting type things with a bit of adult led experiences too.

[finleysmaid]

 

My brain is totally out of sync after the holidays - I can't even understand your question. :lol: :lol:

Do you mean being able to use scissors, hold brushes, use glue effectively?

 

To be honest - is there really any 'skills' needed for art? For me art is all about imagination and experiences .

 

I just like to be able to offer lots of experimenting type things with a bit of adult led experiences too.

well Jester's thrown me off the plot I think! I had in my head a list of things like cutting skills/printing/using different glue/tape etc etc

now I've written it down maybe i'm following the wrong trail we're trying out a new way of moving the staff around and I thought having a basic plan as to what we felt we needed to cover might be useful...does any of this make sense???? :blink: :wacko:

[louby loo]

we're trying out a new way of moving the staff around and I thought having a basic plan as to what we felt we needed to cover might be useful...does any of this make sense???? :blink: :wacko:

 

Well I like the idea of 'trying to move the staff around' this is something I need to work on when we go back! We had a really difficult year last year...... and I feel we've all slipped into some very bad habits (very difficult to be motivated if you don't actually get paid :angry: ) Now things are sorted - we all need to up our game again now.

 

We have a list of art experiences that we try and do with the children- mainly for when we have our brain dead days.

 

Personally I think if you just have a creative area without some kind of adult input it can become very limiting for the children- they need role models that think outside the box to help develop the children's own creativity and imagination.

 

I'm a naturally creative type person and I hate it when you just see pots of paint, an easel, brushes and a few other random resources etc - then people say it's a 'free art area'

 

x

[catma]

I've done something on this recently - will dig out the list I compiled and let you know!

 

There are skills we need to support and develop!

 

cx

[Cait]

Yes I agree. It's no got supplying loads of resources if the children have no idea how they can be used. I've seen many fabulously stocked 'art areas' with rollers, pipettes,, shells, feathers, sponges, etc, but unless children are shown the potential of these, they remain unused. It's necessary to perhaps do an adult led activity once in a while to demonstrate these things before providing them as open resources.

[catma]

OK trying to get my thinking cap on and brain is struggling!

 

This term I really want to make sure the staff to teach the skills needed for art (there's been a bit of pinterest fever going on)

so what I would like to do is create a list of all the art skills children need to acquire ...so what would you include in this list?

The Prime skills are also part of this

 

EM+M Awareness of/Interest in:

• Responding/moving to sounds or music
• Joining in or initiating songs and rhymes, dances and ring games
• Exploring how sounds are made
• Using resources to make the sounds they want
• Exploring colours and what happens when they are mixed
• Using colours to create the colour they want
• Creating shapes (enclosing spaces) through mark making or constructing
• Using a range of tools for a chosen purpose
• Describing differently textured materials
• Using different materials or resources to create or represent chosen objects

 

 

BI Awareness of/Interest in:

• Using objects to represent something else
• Pretending
• Giving their marks a meaning
• Imitating what they have seen in their own experiences
• Making up new stories or a narrative
• Using other toys or materials when making up stories or retelling narratives
• Using different materials to represent how they feel or respond to an experience
• Using their movements to express how they feel or respond to an experience
• Making up songs or rhymes to express how they feel or respond to an experience

[playgroup1]

I've found that one disadvantage of moving away from focus activities in the creative area is that children maybe don't learn the skills or techniques. Such things as mixing colours, using powderpaints, brush control, choosing which size brush, printing with sponges and different objects, scissor skills: snipping, cutting straight lines, cutting round shapes, using glue, which glue to use, how to apply glue, using glitter, joining techniques: tape, staples, using tools like hole punches, staplers, crimpers, and loads more.

We do teach these through in the moment planning and whilst children can explore and investigate them for themselves, a focus activity to teach them will give the children the skills to take with them to independent learning.

What do others think?

[sunnyday]

Re 'snipping' - we sometimes put lots of scrap paper in our tuff spot with scissors - children will spend 'hours' merrily snipping away :1b

[catma]

I've found that one disadvantage of moving away from focus activities in the creative area is that children maybe don't learn the skills or techniques. Such things as mixing colours, using powderpaints, brush control, choosing which size brush, printing with sponges and different objects, scissor skills: snipping, cutting straight lines, cutting round shapes, using glue, which glue to use, how to apply glue, using glitter, joining techniques: tape, staples, using tools like hole punches, staplers, crimpers, and loads more.

We do teach these through in the moment planning and whilst children can explore and investigate them for themselves, a focus activity to teach them will give the children the skills to take with them to independent learning.

What do others think?

 

It's a balance. Some children will have loads of opportunities to rehearse and practise skills at home for example, whilst others need us to provide those opportunities even more so and targetting those children would be appropriate to ensure they are as capable as their peers. Techniques are less inferred and probably need discreet teaching - either as a child needs to be taught them or through planned opportunities that allow them to be exposed to the concepts. Colour mixing for example - we can provide for exploring media but also need to teach to give the knowledge alongside the other skills.

Cx

[Mouseketeer]

Re 'snipping' - we sometimes put lots of scrap paper in our tuff spot with scissors - children will spend 'hours' merrily snipping away :1b

 

As Catma said for some children scissors at home are a no-no (and anything messy as 'that's what you're for' ), if your tuff spot is on a frame tie one end of a piece of string (workable length) around scissors and the other around the frame where the tray sits on it ...can be a lot more independent as not the worry one of them will run off with scissors :-)

[finleysmaid]

As Catma said for some children scissors at home are a no-no (and anything messy as 'that's what you're for' ), if your tuff spot is on a frame tie one end of a piece of string (workable length) around scissors and the other around the frame where the tray sits on it ...can be a lot more independent as not the worry one of them will run off with scissors :-)

I once did this and some clever kiddo just cut all the strings ::1a :lol: :lol: :lol:

[louby loo]

I once did this and some clever kiddo just cut all the strings ::1a :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

Yep.... our do that too! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: